The FO wanted to throw the Balfour Declaration on the dustbin of history as oil was becoming more relevant in their cosying up to the dynasts of the Middle East ... at the Jews ', and ultimately the Palestinian Arabs', expense.

They are widely noticed during the Lodi and Suri periods, the two short-lived dynasties usually referred to as the last of the Afghan dynasties in north India, who competed with and then were displaced by the Mughals as they became established as the ruling dynasts in Delhi-centered Hindustan.

Their rise in economic and political stature resulted from extensive state patronage repeatedly dispensed toward them by various kinsmen who needed to reaffirm and buttress political alliances among tribal constituencies as they replaced each other as dynasts in Kabul. 5 Muhin Shah was an elder in a family of Peshin Sayyids whose lands were confiscated by the ever more active and aggressive Durrani nobility concentrated around Qandahar.

That might alter the generation count in either direction or have no net effect; although one logical response might well be for dynasts or would-be dynasts to try to produce the heir and spare as soon as possible!